Review: Seraphine

An art film about an artist, “Séraphine” is named for a French cleaning lady played by Belgian actress Yolande Moreau. About twenty minutes into this sensitive, sensual film directed by Martin Provost (co-written by Marc Abdelnour) we see the first evidence of Séraphine’s avocation. “M. Séraphine is not receiving visitors,” reads the little sign she hangs from the doorknob of her rented room when she secretively paints canvases of local flora. To mix pigments, she sneaks molten wax from altar candles and blood from the butcher. She used to clean the local convent. When a nun asks after her, she points to her head. Séraphine indeed receives visitations, unseen and unheard by the locals. She quotes Teresa of Avila, whose visions inspired her to seek the color of the eyes of Christ. (Viennese physician Josef Breuer dubbed that sixteenth-century mystic “the patron saint of hysteria.”) Séraphine cleans a house rented by German art critic and dealer Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), who embraces this “modern primitive” among other “painters of the sacred Heart.” A provincial critic complains: “Her apples are anything but apples.” Set in 1914, 1927 and 1935, “Séraphine” is a mostly a story of connoisseurship. It’s also a cautionary lesson in fame. With a patron, a dealer, and a subsidy she is free to make her art. But that happy turn is followed by spiritual excesses that lead to confinement in an asylum. Provost evokes her quasi-animist intimacy with moonlight, lightning, breezes, rivers and trees. Towards the end of his career, D.W. Griffith reportedly said: “What’s missing from movies nowadays is the beauty of the moving wind in the trees.” “Séraphine” captures that aural mystery, complemented by an exquisite score by Michael Galasso (“In the Mood for Love”). Only in the end titles do we learn that Séraphine’s character is based on a painter of the same name who was born in 1864 and died in 1942. She asked for this epitaph: “Here rests Séraphine Louis Maillard (with no rival) … awaiting the blessed resurrection.” With Anne Bennent, Geneviève Mnich, Nico Rogner, Adélaïde Leroux and Serge Larivière. 125m. (Bill Stamets)